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Marc Cooper

The Huffington Post

A New Sort of Campaign Journalism is Possible

October 15, 2007 11:28 AM


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A new sort of campaign journalism is possible. We're doing it today right here on The Huffington Post. Check out our coast-to-coast door-to-door coverage of the Obama campaign and the surprising results we came up with.

Having tired of the same-old, same-old platitudes, bromides and conventional wisdom cooked up inside the campaign media buses, we simply clambered Off The Bus -- the name of our innovative way to do things differently.

Over this past weekend we sent out two dozen citizen journalists to 14 different cities in nine different states, from California to New Hampshire. Their goal: to report back on what they saw at individual Barack Obama campaign Canvass for Change events.

Within hours we collated and edited their reports. We then turned them over to a couple of our top citizen correspondents and writer Mayhill Fowler put together the final piece.

Our network of correspondents found a number of stories that otherwise were buried under mounds of conventional wisdom. They found a Democratic electorate more undecided than polls suggest. And voters perhaps more fired up about rising medical prices than surging troops levels.

Mostly they found that, together, we can re-invent journalism. If you help, that is. Here's how you can join us a campaign monitor. See you Off The Bus.

As our co-founder Jay Rosen says: "Journalists are increasingly realizing that while they can't be everywhere at once, they can be a lot of places at once by calling on a network of citizen contributors for help. That's what we did here. "

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This is one way to bypass the right wing media that has a stranglehold on the information we can get, and that promotes certain candidates over others. Hopefully it will not lead to more of the same.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:54 PM on 10/20/2007

I stopped "reading" the newspaper quite a while back. Now I just skim the articles. It's all become so formulaic in content. Now, if I want a responsible piece of journalism, I read the comic section. At least they tell it like it is, in four small panels,instead of wasting miles of column space, saying nothing.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:20 PM on 10/16/2007

The operative word here is CITIZEN journalist. This is "representative reporting" not corporate reporting, therein lies the difference.

I have an editor in my family who will lose his job should he dare to use his editorial page in comment that does not favor his corporations inclinations. He knows it so he writes their specific mantra and clings to a job he needs.

Newsrooms have been raped and talent discarded. What you have left are terrified humans with their mouths taped shut.

Media conglomerates swiftly gobbled up the free press to silence heartland issues. Now we find mere snipets of news; no indepth reporting or follow up, no investigative reporting, nothing of consequence.

Yammer on about single issue politics by 'the other side' while ignoring the shell game. The horror is our silence.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:50 AM on 10/16/2007

Truth in reporting. Real investigations into what is going on in the world and not slanting it to meet someones goals or expectations. Being able to tell the tales and really investigate what the administration is and has done to us. Someone doing what used to be called investigational journalism into blackwater and haliburtin. Have not seen any of it for a while. Sure the media teases us by calling sound bites and a 30-60 minute news show investigating something but when is it more than a tease and something of real substance? Reality shows should be the what we call the news not play acting bug eating shows. Truth in the media. What an idea.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:12 AM on 10/16/2007

The networks are helping to foster politcs that are
slanted towards the elite. Ted Kopel, Bill Moyers and other impartial journalists are not offered to the public
because it is not profitable for big business, The masses must be manipulated by game shows and extreme fighting and extreme sports besides the soap operas
that inundate television and radio. Remember how the Dixie Chicks were crucified by a radio chain because they dared disown Geoge Bush. Today they are on top again because George Bush proved that he should have been disowned by the American people and not re-elected.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:10 AM on 10/16/2007

Levittown
TED KOPEL? You mean, we don't need no DAN RATHER badges here! Via RATHER'S 'expose' lawsuit revealing CBS betrayal? For shame an uncautious comrade in arms who bites the hand who once fed him eh. Whistleblowers be damned!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:31 PM on 10/16/2007

Journalists aren't even reporting WHAT'S IN FRONT OF THEIR FACE correctly!

So why do they need to collect even more information that they'll not interpret and would rather ignore?

Journalism has NO CREDIBILITY.
JOURNALISM IS DEAD.
Crappy journalism KILLED Journalism.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:06 AM on 10/16/2007

Amen, brother! It's at the point where I know exactly what a journalist is going to write about any political contender, because I've figured out who it is that the owner-moguls of the media are willing to have in power. It isn't really hard to figure out.
We will overcome - we will take back our country out of their hands. They are our enemy. They are our enemy because their allegiance is to a foreign power.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:48 PM on 10/16/2007

Kudos for doing actual reporting!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:43 PM on 10/15/2007

So what's new, really? More reporting as if there are only two Dems seeking nomination?More reporting on one of the high-profile campaigns, done a little differently.
Well, one good thing is that most folks seem to be still undecided. Are they aware that there are more than two Democratic candidates?Let's hope so. And let's hope, come caucus time they may actually think for themselves and nominate someone eminently qualified, someone who does not need on-the-job training.Someone other than the "frontrunners". Bonus: the media actually have something new-- right under their noses, just the way they like it-- to report on.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:46 PM on 10/15/2007

Kucinich fits that bill. What? You think I'm joking?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:19 PM on 10/16/2007

Great idea! I really enjoyed reading the reports from off the bus. It gives a much more realistic view of what's really happening.

The infotainment news channels have an agenda, and they are pushing it in a big way. The polls get more ridiculous by the minute. What is never mentioned is that Hillary has all the support she's going to get, and most Dems are still undecided!! That leaves the race wide open.

I pray to God that Hillary doesn't win the Dem nomination, because I know it will mean at least four more years of our aggressive, bomb-them-first-and-talk-later foreign policy.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:41 PM on 10/15/2007

DO IT, for christ's sake, DO IT!!!!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:36 PM on 10/15/2007

It would be nice to have some real journalists when it comes to the big media outlets (MSNBC,FOX,CNN). I was watching Joe Scarborough this morning and him and the lady with him were on camera holding up a newspaper and reading the headlines.....seriously what the fuck kind of reporting is that? The newspapers are all full of crap so they are not doing their jobs at all and than talking about stupid topics. No wonder our country as a whole is losing its intelligence. They have a chance to make and impact in this world and to help the rest of the country become informed about how to make this country and world a better place.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:36 PM on 10/15/2007

Those people in front of the camera you mentioned
are celebs, not reporters. they are chosen for their ability to sell the story, not write it.

The old time reporter had a "beat" and had connections and did research. They were not above
buying a little info but they usually had pretty
good sources, which they protected. Most of the
time this kind of reporter was not a "pretty face".

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:18 PM on 10/16/2007

I'm very glad this effort is going on. In your investigation, please be journalistic and cover some of the more obvious stories going on....like Edward's and Ron Paul's. The numbers are there, and make for more interesting stories than julie rudiani or rombot or billary.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:11 PM on 10/15/2007
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Nico Pitney is National Editor at the Huffington Post.
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Thomas B. Edsall is the Political Editor of the Huffington Post. He is also Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
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Sam Stein is a Political Reporter at the Huffington Post, based in Washington, D.C. Previously he has worked for Newsweek Magazine, the New York Daily News and the investigative journalism group Center for Public Integrity.
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Jason Linkins is a Political Reporter at the Huffington Post, covering media and politics. He's based in Washington, DC. Previously, he wrote for HuffPo's Eat The Press, and has also contributed to DCist and Wonkette.
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Seth Colter Walls is a Political Reporter at the Huffington Post, based in Washington, D.C.
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Max Follmer is a Political Reporter at the Huffington Post, based in Los Angeles.
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Marc Cooper is a Special Correspondent for the Huffington Post as well as Editorial Director of OffTheBus.
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Katharine Zaleski is News Editor at the Huffington Post.
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Will Thomas is an Associate News Editor and Political Reporter at the Huffington Post.
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